strat 5 way switch wiring question

[scole]

i used a diagram from seymour duncan to wire my strat using only one tone pot. it works great. i noticed there is a wire that connects the common on one side of the switch to the other. i forgot to do this and the guitar works fine. what is that connection for?

[Mark Hammer]

There are two sets of contacts on such switches. You will note that there are two different tone controls on a standard-issue Strat. The second set of contacts is used to switch between tone controls, depending on which pickup/s you're using.

[jrfrond]

What Mark said is correct, which leaves you with a whole unused side of the switch to experiment with.

[Mark Hammer]

One of those "experiments" can include tone-related changes by position. So, for example, you might decide to pull the tone pot out of circuit entirely for the M+B and B positions, have one tone cap for the M position and another for N and N+M. Or perhaps introduce an inductor in series with the tone cap i the M position for a variable midcut, and bypass the inductor for a more traditional treble cut in the N and N+M positions.

Lots of possibilities.